As Maximus seeks to consolidate his power on Attilan, he releases his loyal forces to Earth to neutralise the threat from his family once and for all. The family themselves remain split, each trying to adjust to their situation as best they can, and find a way to unite and go home.

I did not enjoy the opening double bill of episodes of Inhumans, but part of me wanted that just to have been the IMAX experience, which felt desperately overblown when presenting an obviously average budget TV show with all of the limitations that budget would impose. Perhaps, on the small screen, I would find some redemptive value as the story continued to unfold.

Well, not really. For starters, if anything the show looks worse on the TV screen somehow – the ‘untamed jungle’ set through which a bunch of characters find themselves trekking at one point could not more obviously be a sound stage, and that’s one of the better sets. Don’t even get me started on the continued blandness of Attilan (it’s on the moon, I get it, but it just looks so grey) or the actual flat-out cheap terrible-ness that is the costume of one of the new characters introduced here.

Then there’s the dialogue. I honestly ask myself, as a writer, who on earth is writing this and whether they have ever actually heard people speak. I get the impression that, sensing the inherent unreality of the core concept, the writers are trying to go for full-on comic book style with the characters’ speech, but it’s so clunky, so laden with contradictions, exposition and silliness, that it crosses the line from ‘comic book’ to just plain cheesy.

And then there’s the plot. I don’t quite know what to say about that. Anson Mount’s Black Bolt continues to get most of the limelight, the actor turning in easily the best performance in his scenes and the character also getting some flashback scenes to share with young Maximus and their parents. Everyone else…pretty much just jogs in place. Iwan Rheon’s Maximus continues to make very little sense as a villain, basically wanting us to take him seriously because the script says we should rather than for any organic, compelling reason. It’s a shame: Rheon proved in Game of Thrones that he can play villains we love to hate, but this script is giving him almost nothing to work with. Serinda Swan continues to try her best as Medusa but is basically reduced to wandering around looking slightly damp-eyed the entire time. Ken Leung’s Karnak is a bit more juicy (and still appears to be getting the lion’s share of the VFX budget allocated to him) but again we have an entire episode of not much happening. Eme Ikwuakor continues to stomp about growling/shouting about how incredibly hard he is, and Isabelle Cornish’s Crystal is…there.

You sense that somewhere buried underneath the poor visual execution and hammy dialogue are some interesting stories to be told about the Inhumans themselves, how they came to be on the Moon, the basis of their Caste system, etc. Unfortunately, it feels like all that stuff is being done elsewhere – possibly in another timeline – and in this one we just have a feeble, stretched-out Marvel Game of Thrones wannabe with sprinklings of Fish out of Water sequences thrown in to remind us we are still watching the MCU. I hope that it gets better as more is revealed in coming episodes, but on the evidence thus far, I wouldn’t count on it.

Verdict: Badly written dialogue, dull characterisation and poor presentation all add up to make this still the worst Marvel television project to date. At this rate, I don’t expect a second series. 2/10

Greg D. Smith